Snyder Is Not Thinking Ahead

In just two years, Redskins owner Daniel Snyder has become one of sports’ most controversial lightning rods. Apparently, some people are rooting for the lightning.

Already, John Madden and Marty Schottenheimer, two ex-coaches turned TV experts, have taken shots at Snyder. In The Washington Post, Madden said, “This team’s problems were not Norv Turner’s fault. . . . Sure, a lot of money was spent . . . but that doesn’t stop guys from getting hurt. He’s still trying to win with a kicker who’s been in the league 19 years. He’s got three 18-year guys. That’s an old team. . . .

“If you look at pro football, you’ll see that every position in an organization except one requires an experienced football person. . . . The only position that is void of any real football experience is the owner’s. . . . I don’t know if Daniel Snyder is right or wrong or good or bad. But I do know that he’s inexperienced.”

Schottenheimer also took a shot at Snyder when asked if he’d take the Redskins job, telling The Post: “I don’t have any interest because it wouldn’t work for him, or me, and most important, the team. . . . If a player has a sense that the head coach is not the one they’re ultimately accountable to, if they feel there is an alternative in the owner’s box, it becomes very difficult to manage and coach that player.”

Who knew you could say, “Take this job and shove it,” when you weren’t even offered the job? The NFL coaches network is clearly closing ranks behind Turner and pointing fingers at Snyder. That may contaminate the Redskins’ chances to get the best possible coach for 2001. Maybe it will be interim coach Terry Robiskie. But it would be nice to have choices. Somebody needs to take the other side of this “Crossfire” debate.

Talk about light lifting. If anybody ever deserved a chance to seek new employment, it was Turner after home losses to the Eagles and Giants. Norv’s been staying in office on “recounts” for years. The collapse after a 7-1 start in ’96 didn’t nail him. He survived the 0-7 start of ’98. Finally, he just ran out of appeals after finishing with a 49-59-1 record as Redskins coach.

Watching the Redskins’ sideline the past two Sundays was painful. But typical of the Turner era. The Eagles and Giants were jumping, screaming. The Redskins sat on their benches like they were studying for a math quiz. The last team that needs to sit and take a rest is the Redskins. It’s exhausting to watch them miss assignments, jump offside, bounce snaps and miss field goals. But for $100 million, it shouldn’t be excessively tiring to be them.

One of my father’s favorite expressions was, “You are your habits.” Under Turner, the Redskins had the lousiest habits of any Washington football team since Vince Lombardi arrived and shaped up the ship in 1969. If it’s true that “you play the way you practice,” then Turner’s practices should have been X-rated.

After a few years, much less seven, a team reflects its coach. On the first offensive play Sunday, the Redskins got a penalty. How eloquent. Sometimes one flag is worth a thousand words. They missed a first down by a yard and had to punt.

However, the Redskins’ last play didn’t speak well for Turner either. For the second straight week, he put the team’s fate--and all the heat--on a 44-year-old, off-the-scrap-heap kicker at the very limit of his range. The alternative? For Turner to make a tough fourth-down play call himself and face the flack if it failed. He ducked. Either he had lost confidence in himself, his offense, or both.

Can we finally bury Norv’s Era of Nice, please? Snyder certainly fired the right man. And Snyder hired the right man, too. For years, I’ve written that the Redskins’ problems were motivation and execution.

If you run an organization, it helps to anticipate the worst, rather than simply hope for the best. After the Giants defeat, Snyder acted with all the calm foresight of a man who awakens to discover his hair on fire. “This was not planned. We had no backup plans,” Snyder said. “We had not planned to lose Sunday’s game.”

In every bar on Sunday, somebody in a Redskin jersey said, “How could we lose that game? Why didn’t Turner switch quarterbacks earlier? Somebody ought to fire this guy.” By his own accounts, that’s not too far from what Snyder was thinking, too. Unfortunately, owners who react to crisis like fans seldom do well.

Sunday evening, Snyder kept Turner waiting for two hours for a meeting that never took place. Eventually, Turner simply left. That was a bush league move by Snyder, no matter how mad he was. At least call off the meeting. When you treat people that way, after they’ve worked 80-hour weeks for you, word gets around.

Snyder’s pressure hasn’t helped the kicking situation. If a football owner creates tension, that pressure tends to build up in the toe of the field goal kicker. Every time a low-rent kid or an ancient last-gasp vet has lined up a kick with the game on the line, Snyder might as well have been standing behind him, whispering, “If you miss, you’re fired.”

Snyder deserves credit for the players he has signed and his passion to win. But he needs to take some blame for the excess tension in his organization. When you fire more people in two years than some owners dismiss in a career, that sets a tone. At the least, you need a coach, a quarterback and a kicker with tons of ability or a high choke threshold. Because you’re raising the pressure on them enormously.

Robiskie’s first act as coach was to apologize to all Redskins fans. There’s certainly blame enough to go around. Including some for Snyder. Nevertheless, the Redskins’ losing ways are so deeply ingrained in the players themselves--partly because of Turner’s laxity--that even their well-intentioned words betray them.

“We’ll go out with a totally new attitude with Terry as coach,” said injured receiver Michael Westbrook this week.

Oh, really? For $100 million, a great attitude doesn’t come with the package? For the Redskins, maybe it’s just an option, like power steering or tinted windows.